Scary VG music

[Sydian]

I was gonna do a more clever title, but honestly...who cares? Anyway, I got really interested in scary video game music the other night and listened to about 6 lists of peoples' top whatever number of scary songs. Some surprisingly odd ones made it into most lists, but there was one in particular that stood out to me and made every single list. Before I post that as well as some of my other picks though, I'd like to see what you guys think!

So, what are the scariest songs in video gaming for you? You can pick from horror games if you please, though I think it's more fun to pick from non-horror since those games aren't expected to be scary. Also, please note that creepy and scary are rather different. Pick something that genuinely scares you! Things that just add to the ambience and atmosphere of a creepy area...meh. That's for babies.

I'm actually hoping you'll post things that will scare my pants off. Let's go!

 

[Yukari]

Actually most Horror games don't have soundtracks, usually those are taken out because because silence is a lot scarier.

My pick would be Giygas's theme from Earthbound. Let the music talk for me.

Spoiler:

 

[Incinermyn]

Several themes come to mind...

Basically, the entire soundtrack to the original Luigi's Mansion is as scary as VG music gets, and the game itself was just meant to be creepy in a cartoonish sense because it was about Luigi ghost hunting. The background music actually got VERY intense during boss battles and major ghost-busting fights, and it's the type of stuff that gives even full grown men nightmare (I'm 28, still play this game from time to time, and have said nightmares).

The final boss music from Super Mario 64 is outright terrifying. I mean, Bowser is actually pretty scary in this game (and I really didn't like it that much because it took away from the cartoony factor I've come to associate with Mario games), but the pipe organ-ish music playing the background of the final boss battle against him scares me even now.

Next, the final battle tracks for the four-stage fight against Kefka in FF VI is rather terrifying. Each one sounds like satanic chanting in the background (which is actually the point since he had taken the power of three warring deities in the game and essentially turned into a demonic god himself). I felt like I was being cursed or something listening to it... O.o

Finally, Ghetsis's battle music between the BW and BW2 games really terrifies me every time I hear it. The malevolent tones on their own are scary enough, but the constant chanting of the word "madness" only made it worse.

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

While it may not be the scariest song out there, I'd go with the Chozo Ghost Battle Theme from Metroid Prime. It has a really chilling and urgent mood to it, combined with the fact that you are fighting on an eery world where your enemy keeps disappearing and reappearing in front of your very eyes makes for a pretty scary and adrenaline-inducing battle experience. You can find gameplay for that fight right here, but here is the actual track as well:

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Basically, the entire soundtrack to the original Luigi's Mansion is as scary as VG music gets, and the game itself was just meant to be creepy in a cartoonish sense because it was about Luigi ghost hunting. The background music actually got VERY intense during boss battles and major ghost-busting fights, and it's the type of stuff that gives even full grown men nightmare (I'm 28, still play this game from time to time, and have said nightmares).

Definitely agree with this. The cool thing about the soundtrack was that sometimes during the game Luigi would hum the main tune of the video game and it would correlate with how much health he currently had. If he had full health he would sing it normally, but if he had very little health left his voice would crack and you could feel the sheer terror emanating from him. The very last boss in the game - which I won't reveal for spoilers sake if you do want to play it - had very intense, scary music to it as well.

God this makes me want to play that game again haha ~

 

[Sydian]

My pick would be Giygas's theme from Earthbound. Let the music talk for me.

I actually was going to name this thread "please don't say giygas" or something related to him because he's such an obvious pick. Honestly though, you have to get through a good chunk of the music for it to actually get scary...for me, anyway. I think what's most scary about Giygas is Giygas himself, honestly.

Anyway, the song I had in mind while making this thread is from Super Paper Mario. I actually find it horrifying. River Twygz Bed is absolutely scary, strange, and oddly enough convinced me to buy the game. Apparently the words being muttered are "your soul will rot in hell" backwards. I don't think that's true though. People tend to look down on Nintendo for being too colorful and childish, but this proves that wrong and just raise the "wtf nintendo" question.

Spoiler:

Another one I want to mention is the Masked Man Final Battle from Mother 3. To be honest, I find it more sad than scary, but it does work in both sense. It's terrifying. It's depressing. It's a mixture of feelings and for what's happened at this point of the game, it's absolutely perfect for it. This song rips my heart out and frightens me all at the same time. It takes me right back to how I felt at this point of the game and plays on my emotions. It might not do the same for others as what it does for me, but it could at least make 10 on a top 10 I'm sure, haha. (I went to get the link for it and stopped 5 seconds in if that tells you how much this song affects me.)

Spoiler:

 

[Spinosaurus]

Without going the way of the obvious. (Horror games)

Halloween styled scary?

Spoiler:

Sad scary?

Spoiler:

Unsettling scary?

Spoiler:

These are more "haunted" theme than really scary, but I figured I'd post them since I like them a lot.
Now, scary?

Actually scary considering the context? (Context here is important actually, listening to them standalone isn't really scary, but I'll post them anyway.)

Spoiler:

GENUINELY scary and depressing?


SCARIEST ♥♥♥♥ WHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85AB1p6wpaY

 

[Dter ic]

I've had very few experiences ot this but I'm surprised no one's mentioned N's room in his castle.



It gets worse in B/W2 becuase the music box is off key >.>

 

[Juno]

Obligatory Lavender Town track mention. :P

I don't have a lot off the top of my head - in non-horror games I generally find the nice, melodic tunes to be more memorable than the scary ones. In terms of horror games though, I think Siren: Blood Curse has the scariest soundtrack. It has every type of scary, from creepy to disturbing to haunting.

 

[Yukari]

I actually was going to name this thread "please don't say giygas" or something related to him because he's such an obvious pick

And yet I still would have said Giygas. :P

But here is another great one, though it isn't as good as most of the others mentioned here.

Spoiler:

 

[Sydian]

And yet I still would have said Giygas. :P

But here is another great one, though it isn't as good as most of the others mentioned here.

Spoiler:

Oh, I'm not saying you should have posted it. Not at all. He's scary, but one of the most obvious choices! And I actually almost mentioned that Sonic CD song as an honorable mention. It's just so...out of place and unnecessarily scary. When I think of scary boss battles, Sonic doesn't come to mind...unless this song is involved.

 

[LAWSICK]

I dunno if this one counts, but I hated the music that would play when you're drowning in Sonic the Hedgehog. Even when I was a kid, I would try to avoid water levels or get someone else to play them for me.

Ah I just remembered the Shadow Temple music from Ocarina of Time. That was scary since the music sounded almost like voices.

 

[Hiatus]

Dead Space, in particular, had the most scary video game music, in my opinion. I'm personally not such a huge horror fan, but my friend managed to get me into this game, somehow, and I simply couldn't stop playing; there were a lot of... creepy things here and there, but thankfully, I've endured them all. Its weird-sounding themes made them even worse, but still managed to get past them. Aside from that, Silent Realm song from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is pretty heart-pumping, too. It might be calm and soothing at beginning, but once you happen to awake those guardians, it slowly begins to intensify and make it much harder for you to focus on task. :( For this reason, it's taken me a long, long time for me to get all those realm quests done. I really disliked them, but still had to do them anyway so that I could proceed further into the storyline. Would have muted the volume when playing through these missions, but wasn't able to come up with this idea back then. I'll make sure to do it this time around if I decide to give Skyward Sword another go, haha.

 

[Majestic Electric]

I remember this track scared the absolute c**p out of me when I first played through Pokemon D / P / Pl. It makes everything somehow very unsettling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O7MmZ8geMw&sns=em

 

[Yukari]

Oh, I'm not saying you should have posted it. Not at all. He's scary, but one of the most obvious choices! And I actually almost mentioned that Sonic CD song as an honorable mention. It's just so...out of place and unnecessarily scary. When I think of scary boss battles, Sonic doesn't come to mind...unless this song is involved.

One of the things that makes Giygas so scary is the contrast between him and the game itself. I mean, the game is generally really cute and innocent, and then there's Giygas. I mean OMGWTF! O.o Who would have called that one? The last thing I expected to be the final boss of that game was a boss based on an aborted fetus.

 

[Sydian]

One of the things that makes Giygas so scary is the contrast between him and the game itself. I mean, the game is generally really cute and innocent, and then there's Giygas. I mean OMGWTF! O.o Who would have called that one? The last thing I expected to be the final boss of that game was a boss based on an aborted fetus.

Definitely! And when you consider what he's based on, the theories about him, and all that really went into him, it just adds to it. Haha. We need a scary boss thread so he can dominate there too. :P

 

[fenyx4]

I was gonna do a more clever title, but honestly...who cares? Anyway, I got really interested in scary video game music the other night and listened to about 6 lists of peoples' top whatever number of scary songs. Some surprisingly odd ones made it into most lists, but there was one in particular that stood out to me and made every single list. Before I post that as well as some of my other picks though, I'd like to see what you guys think!

So, what are the scariest songs in video gaming for you? You can pick from horror games if you please, though I think it's more fun to pick from non-horror since those games aren't expected to be scary. Also, please note that creepy and scary are rather different. Pick something that genuinely scares you! Things that just add to the ambience and atmosphere of a creepy area...meh. That's for babies.

I'm actually hoping you'll post things that will scare my pants off. Let's go!

"Darknut" (and the various demi-boss/mini-boss variants), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - This track is one that I find scary in retrospect. Although I didn't really pay attention to the track when actually fighting the Darknut and his mini-boss brethren, the track makes it seems like something is constantly approaching you.. You try to get away, but right after you turn the corner, it's just approaching you, awaiting the end of something or another.. :S

"Twilit Shadow Beast", The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: You have all the triumphant stuff in the game, and then you have this composition.. It feels so otherworldly and out-of-tuney that you just want to rid your current surroundings of the Twilit Beasts so that haunting "music" can just stop playing! Still an effective and nice composition for the purpose that it serves, though. :P

"Drought", Pokemon Ruby Version and "Heavy Rain", Pokemon Sapphire Version ("Abnormal Weather" from Pokemon Emerald sounds more or less identical to "Heavy Rain", although for some reason, it got its own release on the Pokemon Black 2/White 2 soundtrack...apparently, it's a bit slower..?) - both of these are probably the earliest examples of scary videogame music that I can remember.. The Hoenn region is plunged in calamity, and apocalyptical weather-related events seem like they're on the brink of occurring unless Brendan/May can do something to put an end to the unsettling harsh sunlight and relentless rain. "Heavy Rain" has a wonderful melody to sing along with (if you need some sort of musical solace amidst the torrential downpours and intense heat waves), but "Drought" is the musical interpretation of "OMG WHAT'S HAPPENING?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!" in a very unsettling manner.

"Mt. Pyre", Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Versions - this track is also an early example.. I guess it seems more scary at Mt. Pyre itself (the first place where one typically hears said music, anyway); even though New Mauville and Shoal Cave re-use the same "Mt. Pyre" music for their background music, those 2 locations don't seem nearly as scary.. Anyways, it's quite foreboding and the musical discomfort that it provides fits very well with the Mt. Pyre (Mount Pyre? Pyre Mountain?) location.

"Lavender Town", Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow; Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen - these are the only variants I've heard so far, but they're eerie enough. The FireRed arrangement is the one I'm most accustomed to, and I have an urge to leave the city every time I have to revisit the area solely because of the music. All of the creepypasta doesn't help (probably the most creepypasta that exists for a particular instrumental track?), nor does the tidbit about the original original version having strange high-pitched noises and stuff that can be a bit much for the ears.. :x

"Bowser's Theme", Super Mario 64 - another early example of scary battle music.. Bowser's laugh in the game was already unsettling enough; this theme just makes it seems like stuff is going down the tubes (regardless of the actual outcome of the battles/matches against Bowser).

"Battle - First Half", The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (offhead, I think this is the theme I'm trying to refer to, although I can't verify it at the moment..) - for a theme that one has to listen to for most of the game as one engages in battle, it does a great job of making practically every fight scary. XD Often, I'm walking around and hear this music start up, meaning that there's an unseen enemy that is (somewhat) nearby..the longer that I go without seeing said enemy, the worse the situation seems to feel/become. XD What with random plants shooting out of the ground at a moment's notice and flying organisms suddenly swooping down without warning, both of which typically necessitate some sword-based combat or projectile-oriented combat... *shudders*

"Opening/Menu", Metroid Prime 1 - I haven't even heard that theme in the proper context (having been introduced to it via Super Smash Bros. Brawl), and it seems to complement the Metroid series perfectly, with Samus's frequent ventures into forbidden and/or distressing territory, not to mention the hosts of alien organisms that she has to face off against..

As for honorable mentions and games where I can't pull other specific examples from at the moment, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Golden Sun: The Broken Seal/Golden Sun: The Lost Age have a few good instances of "scary music" that's utilized appropriately.. The Sonic the Hedgehog 1 "Drowning" music probably qualifies as well, although I haven't heard that in-game myself in recent memory..

I actually was going to name this thread "please don't say giygas" or something related to him because he's such an obvious pick. Honestly though, you have to get through a good chunk of the music for it to actually get scary...for me, anyway. I think what's most scary about Giygas is Giygas himself, honestly.

I don't think I've seen too many people mention Giygas' music; mostly I see "Lavender Town" as the most mentioned, even in areas not specifically related to the Pokemon franchise. I hope to actually hear Giygas' "scary" tune in-game, though..

 

[Khoshi]

But here is another great one, though it isn't as good as most of the others mentioned here.

Spoiler:

NO NO NO ;____;

It's this that stopped me from finishing Sonic CD :( I had to download the Japanese version, because the final boss music in that was a lot more...Sonic-like.

Anyway, all the mention of Giygas, but no Cave of the Past? The music in that made me feel like I was lost in the passages of the universe. The feeling that you're both alone and not alone...sadly, all that makes me feel like that is the constant loop.

Here's my pick.

Spoiler:

Ominous, again, the sense of loneliness kicks in. That laugh though. ;_;

 

[Sydian]

Drought is actually pretty scary. I don't know why, but when I'm scared, I get really teary-eyed and Drought actually did that for me. Heavy Rain just made me feel like something bad was happening and didn't scare me. Drought just sounds...terrifying.

I don't know how Twilit Beast slipped my mind omg. That scared the hell out of me when I first played Twilight Princess, not to mention when you have big black...things running towards you, it's pretty intense. And if you accidentally or unknowingly leave one alive and they bring the others back, that scream they let out makes it even worse.

Also, I think the issue with that Sonic CD music is that not only is it not Sonic-y, it sounds like you're doomed and have no chance of winning. Like "here have this ominous laugh that will scare the piss out of you." Thanks, game!

Also Majestic Electric, you don't have to censor "crap." :P

 

[Spinosaurus]

That Sonic CD track reminds me of this in a sense


I didn't post it originally because it's not really scary but rather unexpected, but what the hell it creeped me out at first so I guess it counts.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Haha, the Merry-Go-Round from Big Boo's Haunt in Super Mario 64 XDD

Also..... Zant's theme from twilight princess.